Kirk advocates early end to federal TARP

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk said Monday he would end the federal Troubled Asset Relief program early in the hopes that it would save billions of dollars.

CHRIS WETTERICH

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk said Monday he would end the federal Troubled Asset Relief program early in the hopes that it would save billions of dollars.

Kirk, a U.S. House member from suburban Chicago, made the proposal in a speech about Illinois and the national economy hosted by the Illinois Policy Institute at the Hoogland Center for the Arts Monday. Roughly 40 people attended the event.

“We supported the legislation because we faced a unique danger as outlined by the secretary of the treasury and the chairman of the Federal Reserve,” Kirk told reporters after the speech. "But I think the greater danger ... is the debt of the United States and the deficit. So I think it is responsible to wind this program up.”

The program is already set to end Oct. 3. But a Congressional Budget Office report estimates that $14 billion will be spent from 2011 to 2014, “reflecting the cost of providing assistance to homeowners.”

"It's hard to tell which Congressman Kirk we should believe – the one who enthusiastically supported TARP, voted six times to protect taxpayer-financed CEO bonuses, and voted against cracking down on Wall Street, or the one who now says the program should be shuttered," said Giannoulias spokesman Scott Burnham in a statement.

Kirk said he is aligning himself with the views of two Democratic senators – Dianne Feinstein of California and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, who also favor ending the program early.

Giannoulias supported TARP, but criticized banks helped by the program for handing out bonuses to their executives and proposed reining in the bonuses and implementing stricter lending requirements, Burnham said.

Monday's speech was a part of a series of talks Kirk is giving on policy issues in the campaign. He says his next speech will be on the national economy, but a time and location have yet to be announced.

The TARP program used taxpayer money to bolster financial institutions in an effort to stop the 2008 financial crisis. Congress and then-President George W. Bush approved it in 2008. The government spent $700 billion on TARP, but the latest CBO report estimated that the program will cost taxpayers only $66 billion.